Newsletter

100 new Metro Bikes come to Topeka

Capitol Federal's gift of blue bikes doubles total number to 200

Cyndi Ryan, a marketing assistant at Capitol Federal, was among around 30 people to ride the new Topeka Metro BlueBikes on Wednesday morning. Ryan and others are shown here riding in front of Capitol-Federal's home office at 700 S. Kansas Ave.

For the past year, Topekans have taken full advantage of 100 red Metro Bikes, riding them in nearly every area of town.

Residents now will have twice as many bikes to ride, as another 100 bicycles joined the fleet Wednesday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eALv8QQ-_Zc

The new ones are electric blue — the primary color of Capitol Federal, which donated funds to purchase the new bicycles.

John Dicus, president and chief executive officer of Capitol Federal, said the gift was a way to help encourage health and fitness for Topeka residents and help make the capital city “a more active and vibrant community.”

The gift doubled the number of bicycles in Topeka Metro’s ride share program. Karl Fundenberger, director of bicycle operations for the Metro, said the gift will allow more Topekans to take advantage of the program.

“This amps up our accessibility,” Fundenberger said. “This means more bikes will be available when people want to ride.”

Fundenberger said the bike share program launched in April 2015 has proven so popular that bicycles sometimes weren’t available for people who wanted to ride.

“We’re really excited about our first year,” he said. “We had 35,000 miles pedaled and 2,500 people who signed up. With the new bikes, we’re excited to double that — or more.”

Fundenberger thanked Capitol Federal for purchasing the bicycles. The exact value of the gift wasn’t disclosed.

“Capitol Federal — they basically covered the expenses of the bikes,” Fundenberger said. “They really made this happen. It’s fantastic that they’ve seen the value that this program has to the community.”

The bicycles are nearly identical in design to those with which the program began. Both models use a drive shaft instead of chains and are equipped with a basket, GPS tracking system and locks. For information, visit topekametrobikes.org.